The invention relates to an air conduit arrangement for ventilating or air conditioning a vehicle interior, which is supplied with multi-layered, preformed panel elements (10), wherein a decorated side (12) of the panel elements (10) faces the vehicle interior and a back (14) with fastening elements faces the body wall.
Air conduit arrangements, through which fresh air or conditioned air is brought to individual passengers seats, are already being employed in vehicles with large interiors, such as ships, aircraft or buses. In most cases there are outlet openings in the ceiling panels above the seats, to which flexible hoses are brought from a central ventilation or an air conditioner. In these case the hoses are disposed hidden behind the paneling.
In smaller vehicles, in particular passenger cars, the outlet openings for air or conditioned air are located in the dashboard. Here, too, the air conduits can be embodied in the form of hoses, which are attached hidden behind the frame of the dashboard, or they can be molded as thermoplastic preformed parts which are friction-welded to other thermoplastic preformed parts of the frame of the dashboard. However, the dashboard does not represent a panel element, but a functional element.
To make it possible in small vehicles, for example mini buses, to provide a better supply of air or conditioned air to the seats, it would be desirable to supply it via air conduits to openings in the paneling, such as is known in connection with the above mentioned vehicles with large interiors. However, in this case there is the problem that to provide within comparatively small exterior dimensions as spacious as possible an interior, the panel elements are attached very closely to the body, because of which the space remaining between them is very narrow. Thus, in most cases it is not possible to house air conduit arrangements of the previously discussed type which would still fit into the space between the panel elements and the body.